lord of the flies ralph essay plan

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Lord of the flies – sample essay..

Choose a novel in which an important theme is explored. Explain how the author develops this theme throughout the novel.

            The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel in which the theme of savagery versus civilisation is explored. Some British boys are stranded on an isolated island at the time of an imaginary nuclear war. On the island we see conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who respectively represent civilisation and savagery. This has an effect on the rest of the boys throughout the novel as they delve further and further into savagery.

             The theme of savagery versus civilisation is first introduced to us through the symbol of the conch shell which we associate with Ralph as he is the person who first uses it and becomes the elected leader of the boys. This symbolises authority amongst the boys. At the first assembly Ralph says “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak…he won’t be interrupted”. This suggests civilisation as Ralph is allowing each boy to have an equal say and opinion. If they have the conch, no matter who they are or what age they are they will be given the chance to speak and will be listened to by the rest of the boys. The boys have created the island to be a democratic place which shows a civilised side to them as they try to mimic the homes they have just left.

             Contrasting with the symbol of the conch is the symbol of the beast which comes to be associated with Jack as by the end of the novel he is almost devil worshipping it. The beast begins as a  “snake thing” but by the end of the novel it has become “the Lord of the Flies”. The first quote shows us that the beast is clearly evil. Western society considers snakes to be bad omens because it was a snake that led Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. However at this stage of the novel the beast is quite insubstantial as it is only a “thing”. As the boys fear of the beast grows so to does the beast itself until it has manifested into the devil – the ultimate and most powerful evil. He has a strong status as a Lord although it is over something pretty disgusting – the flies. The boys belief in the beast leads them to behave more like savages as they act out from their fear and they begin to loose hold of the rules, led by Jack, thus demonstrating the theme of savagery.

             One of ways Golding shows conflict between savagery and civilisation is when Jack and some of the other boys are killing the first pig. Jack chants “kill the pig, cut her throat, spill the blood”. This suggests savagery as the boys are being violent and aggressive when killing the pig and they don’t care about it. This is particularly clear through Golding’s word choice. Jack talks about cutting the pig’s throat which makes it sound like a savage action and spilling her blood which reinforces the lack of care and feeling shown towards the pug’s carcass. This shows that the boys are no longer feeling guilty about what they have done thus showing them becoming savages. 

             We can see the conflict between savagery and civilisation developing further when Piggy’s glasses are broken. We are told “Piggy cried out in terror ‘my specs!” This shows us that the boys savage natures are beginning to overule their more civilised sides. At the start of the book Jack would never have dared touch Piggy, but here he actually snaps and goes for Piggy who he despises. We can tell that Piggy is really scared as Golding chooses the words “cried” and “terror” to describe the scene. Piggy sounds like he is hurting and is genuinely terrified about what Jack might do to him and the loss of his sight. Piggy’s glasses have also come to represent intelligence on the island, with them breaking we see that the pathway to savagery is now completely open for the boys. This is the first true piece of violence between the two factions on the island and it will result in nearly all the boys becoming savages.

             A final way in which we see the theme of savagery versus civilisation being demonstrated is when Ralph sticks up for Piggy after he is attacked by Jack. Ralph says “that was a dirty trick”. This shows that Ralph is really angry at Jack for what he said and did to Piggy. He is still attempting to impose himself as leader here as he says this in an aggressive and assertive tone. This suggests there is still some glimmers of civilisation on the island at this point as there is still someone with a sense of moral goodness ready to fight for justice.

             In conclusion The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel in which the theme of savagery versus civilisation is shown. Ralph represents civilisation as he wants to enforce rules and let everyone have an equal say. Whereas Jack who represents savagery as he rules over the boys and he is not interested in what they have to say. Through the boys actions Golding shows us that we need rules and to consciously impose them to make sure society functions properly.

27 thoughts on “Lord of the Flies – sample essay.”

AWESOME thanks guys!!

This essay was really helpful and thought provoking. I noticed a comment about how this essay could improve and I understand that this essay follows Scottish Qualifications, but I just have two suggestions to improve it.

At the beginning of Paragraph 4 it states “One of ways”. I think that perhaps the author meant “One of the ways”.

Also, in Paragraph 5 the author uses “We”, it may be different in Scotland, but I learnt that in essays one does not use personal pronouns.

Other than that it was really well written <3 Thank you!

I’m sorry you didn’t find the essay any help. There are mistakes in this as it was written by a National 5 class and is an exact sample essay as written by the pupils (equivalent to GCSE) and as a result of that there are some errors. It does talk about the same thing over and over again – civilisation versus savagery – but it is supposed to as this was the focus of the essay question. When writing a critical essay you need to pick out things from the text that answer the question. You will notice that different things are picked out from the text that relate to the fight between civilisation and savagery – whether this is the symbols used in the book or the actions of some of the characters. Once this has been selected to speak about you need to lift evidence from the text to support what you are saying and then explain it to your readers. I hope this has helped you understand the point of the essay a bit better.

Ms Davidson

Is this essay meant to be for a GSCE course? I am doing an essay about it now and I’m in year 8.

This text is being used by students in a Scottish Secondary School for their National 5 English qualification. They sit their exam at the equivalent age to those studying GCSEs. It doesn’t really matter what age you are when you study the text, it’s more to do with the levels of analysis you go through whilst studying the text. This essay would be a minimum pass at National 5 in Scotland. It is written by students and is simply an example of what students could write in their exam.

Hope that’s helped, Ms Davidson

I was desperate to know what to write in the conclusion but then this conclusion gave me some help, Thank you

Thank you so much!! The points in this essay are extremely helpful and I was able to interlink them in my GCSE exam today. Very helpful source!!

You are very welcome!

I’m glad you found it useful!

Thanks so much I have this 5 paragraph essay that’s due and you helped me so much for idea wise

WOOOOW amazing thank you so much

😍😍😍😍❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

this is gold as I have to write an essay on lotf and was having troubles finding main quotes the had good techniques paired to them and this helped a lot

Is this a full mark piece ?

This would probably get 15-16 out of 20 at National 5 in the Scottish system. Hope that helps.

Glad it was useful!

Thank you so much this was so extremely helpful. You are a lifesaver!

I’m glad I found this essay because i got an A on my school essay. THANK YOU SO MUCH 🙂

I wanted conflict between ralph and jack ONLY

You can change the points and the link backs (the first and last sentence in each paragraph) to focus on the conflict between Jack and Ralph if you need to. Each symbol talked about here is either associated with Jack or Ralph. Also Jack and Ralph link to the wider theme of the book with each boy respectively representing civilisation or savagery. This essay can be used to help you structure the one you need to write.

I am writing a paragraph and i need to write about the theme, charecters/groups… i cant start the paragraph with the answers, i need an intro, what can i do for an intro, i am a bit stuck

I’m not sure I understand your question Sarah. Your paragraph seems to include an awful lot of things. What is the overall point you are trying to talk about? If you were looking at the theme of civilisation then you could start with a simple sentence saying “The Lord of the Flies explores the theme of savagery versus civilisation”. If you are focusing on a particular character then begin with “The Lord of the Flies uses one of it’s main characters Jack/Ralph to explore certain ideas within the text.” I hope this helps. Ms Davidson

This helped me soon much!I’m so happy that I got an A+!My teacher was so happy.

That’s excellent!

THANK YOU SO MUCH 🙂

I need help with that essay lotf essay why should a leader read lotf base on ralph.

Take a look at the essay based on the character Ralph. Adapt it the first sentence in each paragraph (your POINT) so that it focuses on Ralph being a good example of being a leader, or how they can learn a lesson from him doing something that shows him being a bad leader. Then adapt the final sentence (your LINK BACK) so it responds to him setting an example (or not!) for leaders.

I was reading through the comments and you mentioned that the essay would be about 15-16 marks out of 20, and was wonder what improvements could be made to get the last few marks?

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Lord of the Flies

William golding, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Ralph Quotes in Lord of the Flies

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Lord of the Flies

By william golding, lord of the flies study guide.

Sir William Golding composed Lord of the Flies shortly after the end of WWII. At the time of the novel's composition, Golding, who had published an anthology of poetry nearly two decades earlier, had been working for a number of years as a teacher and training as a scientist. Golding drew extensively on his scientific background for his first narrative work. The novel's plot, in which a group of English boys stranded on a deserted island struggle to develop their own society, is a social and political thought-experiment using fiction. The story of their attempts at civilization and devolution into savagery and violence puts the relationship between human nature and society under a literary microscope. Golding's allusions to human evolution also reflect his scientific training. The characters discover fire, craft tools, and form political and social systems in a process that recalls theories of the development of early man, a topic of much interest among many peoples including the mid-century Western public. The culmination of the plot in war and murder suggests that Golding's overarching hypothesis about humanity is pessimistic, that is, there are anarchic and brutal instincts in human nature. Ordered democracy or some other regime is necessary to contain these instincts.

As an allegory about human nature and society, Lord of the Flies draws upon Judeo-Christian mythology to elaborate on the novel's sociological and political hypothesis. The title has two meanings, both charged with religious significance. The first is a reference to a line from King Lear , "As flies to wanton boys, are we to gods." The second is a reference to the Hebrew name Ba'alzevuv, or in its Greek form Beelzebub, which translates to "God of the Flies" and is synonymous with Satan. For Golding however, the satanic forces that compel the shocking events on the island come from within the human psyche rather than from an external, supernatural realm as they do in Judeo-Christian mythology. Golding thus employs a religious reference to illustrate a Freudian concept: the Id, the amoral instinct that governs the individual's sense of sheer survival, is by nature evil in its amoral pursuit of its own goals. The Lord of the Flies, that is, the pig's head on a stick, directly challenges the most spiritually motivated character on the island, Simon , who functions as a prophet-martyr for the other boys.

Published in 1954 early in the Cold War, Lord of the Flies is firmly rooted in the sociopolitical concerns of its era. The novel alludes to the Cold War conflict between liberal democracy and totalitarian communism. Ralph represents the liberal tradition, while Jack, before he succumbs to total anarchy, represents the kind of military dictatorship that, for mid-century America and Great Britain, characterized the communist system. It is also notable that Golding sets the novel in what appears to be a future human reality, one that is in crisis after atomic war. Golding's novel capitalizes on public paranoia surrounding the atom bomb which, due to the arms race of the Cold War, was at a high. Golding's negative depiction of Jack, who represents an anti-democratic political system, and his suggestion of the reality of atomic war, present the novel as a gesture of support for the Western position in the Cold War.

In addition to science, mythology, and the sociopolitical context of the Cold War, Lord of the Flies was heavily influenced by previous works of speculative fiction. In particular, Golding's novel alludes to R. M. Ballantyne's 1857 The Coral Island , which tells the story of three boys stranded on a desert island. Golding, who found Ballantyne's interpretation of the situation naive and improbable, likely intended Lord of the Flies to be an indirect critique of The Coral Island . Golding preserves the names of two of Ballantyne's characters, Ralph and Jack, to force the two texts into deeper comparison. While the boys of Coral Island spend their time having pleasant adventures, Golding's characters battle hunger, loneliness, and the deadly consequences of political conflict after they are deserted. The pessimistic character of Golding's story reflects the author's emphasis on the necessity of democratic civilization. Critics also have noted the relationship between Lord of the Flies and Joseph Conrad's canonical 1902 Heart of Darkness , which follows a soldier's excursion into marginal African civilizations. Reflecting some biases, Heart of Darkness depicts these parts of Africa as places where social order is absent and anarchy rules, breeding death and disorder; the novel sees the same problem as an issue within the individual human soul. Like Conrad's work, Golding's novel emphasizes the brutal and violent human impulses that arise in the absence of political order.

Lord of the Flies, with its dystopian and speculative characteristics, established Golding as a solid author with an interest in the science-fiction literary genre that was popular in the 1950s. The novel depicts ostensibly realistic characters, but the plot, which follows a small group of humans isolated within an alien landscape, employs or alludes to the conventions of popular science fiction novels of the time. Golding's subsequent works saw him moving even further into the science fiction genre. The Inheritors , heavily influenced by H. G. Wells's Outline of History , imagines life during the dawn of man and is considered a modern classic of speculative fiction.

Lord of the Flies was not an instant success, selling fewer than 3,000 copies before going out of print in 1955. Shortly thereafter, however, the novel became a bestseller among American and British readers who, as the arms race intensified, likely saw in Golding's wartime dystopia a grim prediction of their own future. By the 1960s the novel was required reading for many high school and college courses, where it has remained to the present day. The enduring popularity of the novel inspired two film adaptations, one by Peter Brook in 1963, and the second by Harry Hook in 1990. Golding's original novel, however, remains the best-known version of the tale. In 2005, Time Magazine named the novel one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.

A continuing controversy surrounding the political message of the novel and its view of human nature has led some readers to challenge its status as a book suitable for children. The American Library Association thus positioned Lord of the Flies at number 70 on its list of the 100 most challenged books of 1990-2000. Among literary critics of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, Lord of the Flies has been revisited less as an allegory of human evil than as a literary expression of Cold War ideology. This historicizing does not do justice to the novel. But in terms of reception history, contemporary critics are right to note that the novel's position at the center of many English curricula across America and Great Britain during the Cold War illustrates how the pedagogy of literature has been used to bolster national identity and ideology.

Lord of the Flies Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Lord of the Flies is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Where had Simon fainted before?

From the text:

“He's always throwing a faint,”said Merridew. “He did in Gib.; and Addis; and at matins over the precentor.”

Quote Analysis. "There was a throb..."

At this point Ralph is once again challenging Jack's authority, Unfortunately all the cards are stacked against Ralph. A storm is brewing and to deflect the boys' fears, Jack orders them to dance around the fire. This communal spectacle of...

How do the boys respond to Jack's call for Ralph's removal as chief? How does Jack react? Respond with evidence from the text.

There is a lot of immaturity here. The other boys refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Enraged, Jack has a tantrum and runs away from the group, saying that he is leaving and that anyone who likes is welcome to join him.The boys don't like the open...

Study Guide for Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies study guide contains a biography of William Golding, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Lord of the Flies
• Lord of the Flies Summary
• Lord of the Flies Video
• Character List

Essays for Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

• Two Faces of Man
• The Relationship Between Symbolism and Theme in Lord of the Flies
• A Tainted View of Society
• Death and Social Collapse in Lord of the Flies
• Lumination: The Conquest of Mankind's Darkness

Lesson Plan for Lord of the Flies

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Lord of the Flies
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Lord of the Flies Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Lord of the Flies

• Introduction

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Lord of the Flies: Character Essay Plans

This includes Simon, Piggy, Ralph, Roger and Jack

• English Literature
• Lord of the Flies
• Created by: Rebecca
• Created on: 18-05-11 17:02

RALPH: democracy and leadership

• leads with equality and justice
• golden, attractive appearance
• repetition of phrase reinforces idea of democracy
• hints at adult world
• yet adult world is intrinsically flawed
• continues to rely on civilsation, school, discipline
• wants to share leadership
• kindness and sympathy
• is this an error to give Jack power?

RALPH: relationship with Piggy

• admiration of common sense and wisdom
• ironic that he still doesn't know his name
• reliance on hidden leader
• Piggy imparts knowledge on Ralph
• Golding captures school boy speech
• what - focus on role/job not character
• questions show Piggy relies on Ralph and wants approval
• Piggy tries to make his ideas seem like Ralph's
• he is the source of all Ralph's ideas

RALPH: Focus on rescue/civilisation

• monosyllabic, urgency of rescue
• must - complete reliance on rescue
• hungers for rescue
• compared to Jack's hunger for blood
• wants to be reunited with the civilised world
• questions show excitement at thought of rescue
• conditioned by civilisation
• impulse, instinctive to keep civilsation with him
• plosive, disgust
• doesn't want to be tainted by evi - wants to remain clean and pure
• complete desperation 
• exclamation complete desire to go return to civilised world

RALPH: Flaws in leadership

• evil blinds vision
• loss of light and clarity
• failure as a leader
• acceptance that Jack is taking control
• sees leadership as a toy
• hints that he'll use it incorrectly
• yet still values it
• sees leadership as a battle against an opponent
• battle of black and white pieces (perhaps good and evil)
• failure as leader
• game of manipulating pieces/people
• becomes overcome by evil
• tempted by evil desires, wants to inflict pain

PIGGY: relationship with Ralph

• Ralph acknowledges his reason and intelligence

PIGGY: wisdom

• symbolic of vision
• suggest intelligence
• as they are damged, civilsation is destroyed
• sees evil of the fire
• perhaps symbolises the evil of rescue, return to adult world of war
• prescient of the burning wreckage

PIGGY: relationship with democracy

• like a child
• protector of democracy, parent
• appreciation and respect
• admiration of democracy
• love and adoration

PIGGY: vulnerability

Report Wed 18th May, 2011 @ 17:16

Quite useful, thanks

Report Wed 18th May, 2011 @ 17:47

i intend to add more but keep getting distracted lol :) x

Report Sun 6th March, 2022 @ 21:34

hi its been 11 years you added any x

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Lord of The Flies — Lord of the Flies’: Civilization vs Savagery as the Main Theme

Lord of The Flies': Civilization Vs Savagery as The Main Theme

• Categories: Lord of The Flies William Golding

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10 min read

Published: Aug 14, 2023

Words: 1849 | Pages: 4 | 10 min read

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Introduction, civilization vs savagery in the lord of the flies.

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